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Dang, I hate to be "that guy", but surely there's a better, more useful lesson we can learn here. "Don't be a dreamer, be a creator", AKA "get shit done", "hac

Dang, I hate to be "that guy", but surely there's a better, more useful lesson we can learn here. "Don't be a dreamer, be a creator", AKA "get shit done", "hack the world", etc. is pretty par for the course. Mr. Garry Tan tell us more about how Instacart executed, how they got to those first steps of signing suppliers. Any such tidbit would be valuable and useful to us entrepreneurs!

paul 12y ago
If you have a car and know the way to the nearest Safeway, then you have those first steps covered :)
shiftb 12y ago
I hate to say it, but it really does come down to this: just do it. There are two reasons I've seen people waste time instead of moving: 1) Focus It's easy to get sidetracked with all these things that seem like they need to get done. Most of those things you think are important probably don't matter. Find the one thing that is blocking you and unblock it. Repeat. Some people have an innate ability to find the simplest path and focus. Luckily, if you don't have that built-in it's something you can learn. I've personally learned a lot at Instacart about just this. 2) Movement You can't just talk about it. You have to do it. You're almost better off not talking about what you're going to do until you've actually done.
tomblomfield 12y ago
Early on in their life, Instacart couldn't convince grocery stories to give them access to product inventory lists or high-quality photos. So they found a cheap photography studio over a weekend, went to their local Trader Joe's to buy one of every single item and then spent 48 hours photographing all the inventory. Problem solved.
patio11 12y ago
Since it has essentially the marketplace problem (two separate audiences, neither of which has any incentive to participate without the other), you can use the classic marketplace solution. Assert the existence of one side of the marketplace. Work like a dog on acquiring the second. Use your possession of the second to bring the first on a bit more legitimately. They're not selling anything which doesn't already exist, in readily accessible quantity, in their target markets. Thus, handwaving away the problem of lacking supplier relationships is easy. You just go to them like a normal consumer, pull stuff off the shelf, and pay with your credit card. Then you pack it personally or with a team of underemployed people, and deliver it in a similar fashion. This "doesn't scale" but carries little execution risk, and lets you focus on the (first) really hard problem, which is "How do I sell $100k of groceries every single day?" After you're selling $100k of groceries every single day, doors open magically. Those particular doors don't help you bring on more customers, though, so don't focus on opening them prior to having customers.

paul 12y ago

If you have a car and know the way to the nearest Safeway, then you have those first steps covered :)

shiftb 12y ago

I hate to say it, but it really does come down to this: just do it. There are two reasons I've seen people waste time instead of moving: 1) Focus It's easy to get sidetracked with all these things that seem like they need to get done. Most of those things you think are important probably don't matter. Find the one thing that is blocking you and unblock it. Repeat. Some people have an innate ability to find the simplest path and focus. Luckily, if you don't have that built-in it's something you can learn. I've personally learned a lot at Instacart about just this. 2) Movement You can't just talk about it. You have to do it. You're almost better off not talking about what you're going to do until you've actually done.

tomblomfield 12y ago

Early on in their life, Instacart couldn't convince grocery stories to give them access to product inventory lists or high-quality photos. So they found a cheap photography studio over a weekend, went to their local Trader Joe's to buy one of every single item and then spent 48 hours photographing all the inventory. Problem solved.

patio11 12y ago

Since it has essentially the marketplace problem (two separate audiences, neither of which has any incentive to participate without the other), you can use the classic marketplace solution. Assert the existence of one side of the marketplace. Work like a dog on acquiring the second. Use your possession of the second to bring the first on a bit more legitimately. They're not selling anything which doesn't already exist, in readily accessible quantity, in their target markets. Thus, handwaving away the problem of lacking supplier relationships is easy. You just go to them like a normal consumer, pull stuff off the shelf, and pay with your credit card. Then you pack it personally or with a team of underemployed people, and deliver it in a similar fashion. This "doesn't scale" but carries little execution risk, and lets you focus on the (first) really hard problem, which is "How do I sell $100k of groceries every single day?" After you're selling $100k of groceries every single day, doors open magically. Those particular doors don't help you bring on more customers, though, so don't focus on opening them prior to having customers.